Residents of Gabchyari in Darazo Local Government Area, Bauchi State, have lamented shortage of teachers at the only primary and junior secondary schools in their community.
They told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the school which has a population of students 350, is being managed by three teachers.
The situation, according to them, has contributed to the high number of out-of-school children in the community.
Malllam Issa, one of the residents, said that the situation has been the major reason most parents have refused to send their children to school.
He further begged the government to deploy more teachers to the school.
“We want the government to help us get more teachers here, teachers are very important and needed in this school,” he said.
Another resident, Yahaya Adamu also implored the government to renovate the school to make the it conducive for learning.
Yahaya revealed that only two out of six blocks of classrooms are in a good shape.
“It is very hard for the students to get water before they go to school, they spend most of the time searching for water during school hours.
“This makes them not to attend classes on time. And even if they go, they are always tired from the rigour of fetching water,” he said.
A teacher whose name was not disclosed said the secondary section of the school has tel teachers while the primary section manages one.
Reacting, spokesman for Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Abdullahi Mohammad, said local governments’ education secretaries are responsible deploying teachers to schools.
However, Mohammad claimed that Governor Bala Mohammed had promised to hire more teachers to address the shortfall.
According to him, the state government would soon begin hiring teachers.
For renovation of the school, Muhammad stated that the governor had granted enormous sums of money for such projects and that certain schools’ rehabilitation work was currently taking place throughout the state’s 20 local councils.
